Comment notifications for electronic content

ABSTRACT

A comment management system and process for facilitating navigation of discrete segments of electronic content in which users can remain informed as to the comment context for the electronic content as a whole. This can provide collaborative document users the ability to more clearly distinguish comments for a currently viewed content portion from indicators for comments on previous or subsequent segments of content. The indicators can transition between a low visibility mode and a high visibility mode in response to user inputs.

BACKGROUND

Collaborative authoring and review process is often used in thedevelopment and review of different types of documents. For example,many documents generated in today's electronic society are created byone or more individuals, and then further subject to review by severalothers. The documents to be reviewed are created as a form of electroniccontent that is forwarded to others for review and revision, perhaps viaan electronic network.

Electronic documents typically contain digital content such as text,images, slides, and spreadsheets. During the creation of a document,content can be subject to revisions over a period of time, often bymultiple people. Some document-editing applications—such as wordprocessors, spreadsheet programs, and presentation applications—canallow users to add comments, suggestions, and/or add and delete content.

Authors and reviewers participating in this shared process typicallyinsert markups, comments, and other annotations directly into the filecontaining the document. In such cases, the document creator or managercan go through the individual pages or sheets comprising the electronicdocument in order to review the comments. Furthermore, particularly inthe cases of documents that include discrete units of content, theability to readily ascertain or track the number of comments in adocument, or whether any comments for subsequent pages are present, canbe challenging and at times unclear. Thus, there remain significantareas for new and improved ideas for the efficient development ofdocuments, as well as the management of comments associated with contentin an electronic document.

SUMMARY

A data processing device, in accord with a first aspect of thisdisclosure, includes at least one processor and one or more computerreadable media. The computer readable media include instructions which,when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least oneprocessor to present, on a display, a graphical user interface thatincludes a first region and a second region. The first region isconfigured to display at least a first portion of a first discretesegment of a plurality of discrete segments for an electronic content.The second region is configured to display a list comprising of one ormore comment items. The instructions also cause the at least oneprocessor to identify an availability of a first comment associated witha second portion of a second discrete segment in the plurality ofdiscrete segments, the second discrete segment being hidden from viewwhile the first discrete segment is being displayed, and add, inresponse to identifying the availability of the first comment, a firstactuatable comment indicator to the list of comment items, the firstactuatable comment indicator being configured to enable a user tonavigate to the second portion. In addition, the instructions also causethe at least one processor to display the first actuatable commentindicator in the second region, wherein the first actuatable commentindicator is initially in a low visibility mode, and transition, inresponse to a first user input event associated with the firstactuatable comment indicator, an appearance of the first actuatablecomment indicator from low visibility mode to a high visibility modeduring the first user input event.

A data processing device, in accord with a second aspect of thisdisclosure, includes at least one processor and one or more computerreadable media. The computer readable media include instructions which,when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least oneprocessor to present, on a display, a graphical user interface thatincludes a first region and a second region. The first region isconfigured to display at least a first portion of a first discretesegment of a plurality of discrete segments for an electronic content.The second region is configured to display a list comprising of one ormore edit items. The instructions also cause the at least one processorto identify an availability of a first edit associated with a secondportion of a second discrete segment in the plurality of discretesegments, the second discrete segment being hidden from view while thefirst discrete segment is being displayed, and add, in response toidentifying the availability of the first edit, a first edit indicatorto the list of edit items. In addition, the instructions also cause theat least one processor to display the first edit indicator in the secondregion, where the first edit indicator is configured initially toconceal any text from appearing in an interior region of the first editindicator.

A method, in accord with a third aspect of this disclosure, includespresenting, on a display of a user device, a graphical user interfaceincluding a first region and a second region. The first region isconfigured to display at least a first portion of a first discretesegment of a plurality of discrete segments for an electronic content,the sequence of electronic content including a plurality of discretesegments. The second region is configured to display a list comprisingof one or more comment items. The method also includes identifying anavailability of a first comment associated with a second portion of asecond discrete segment of the plurality of discrete segments, thesecond discrete segment being hidden from view while the first discretesegment is being displayed, and adding, in response to identifying theavailability of the first comment, a first actuatable comment indicatorto the list of comment items, the first actuatable comment indicatorbeing configured to enable a user to navigate to the second portion. Inaddition, the method includes displaying the first actuatable commentindicator in the second region, where the first actuatable commentindicator is initially in a low visibility mode, and transitioning, inresponse to a first user input event associated with the firstactuatable comment indicator, an appearance of the first actuatablecomment indicator from low visibility mode to a high visibility modeduring the first user input event.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Furthermore,the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solveany or all disadvantages noted in any part of this disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawing figures depict one or more implementations in accord withthe present teachings, by way of example only, not by way of limitation.In the figures, like reference numerals refer to the same or similarelements. Furthermore, it should be understood that the drawings are notnecessarily to scale.

FIG. 1 illustrates an implementation of a document editing and reviewenvironment;

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram illustrating one implementation of adistributed computing environment for presenting comment indicators;

FIG. 3 is a display diagram illustrating an implementation of aspreadsheet application with a content interface presenting a firstsheet, and a comment interface including a first comment indicator in alow visibility mode;

FIG. 4 is a display diagram illustrating an implementation of thespreadsheet application with the content interface and the commentinterface, where the first comment indicator is in a high visibilitymode;

FIG. 5 is a display diagram illustrating an implementation of thespreadsheet application with the content interface presenting a secondsheet and the comment interface including a second comment indicator;

FIG. 6 is a display diagram illustrating an implementation of thespreadsheet application with the comment interface including a pluralityof comments;

FIG. 7 is a display diagram illustrating an implementation of thespreadsheet application with the comment interface including a thirdcomment indicator;

FIG. 8 is a display diagram illustrating an implementation of aspreadsheet application with a comment interface including a commentindicator with a ghosted effect;

FIG. 9 is a display diagram illustrating an implementation of apresentation application with a content interface presenting a firstslide, and a comment interface including a first comment indicator and asecond comment indicator in a low visibility mode;

FIG. 10 is a display diagram illustrating an implementation of thepresentation application with the comment interface including the firstcomment indicator in low visibility mode and the second commentindicator in a high visibility mode;

FIG. 11 is a display diagram illustrating an implementation of thepresentation application with the content interface presenting a secondslide, and the comment interface including a third comment indicator ina low visibility mode;

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram illustrating an implementation of a processfor managing comment notifications;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an example computing device, which may beused to provide implementations of the mechanisms described herein; and

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating components of an example machineconfigured to read instructions from a machine-readable medium.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are setforth by way of examples in order to provide a thorough understanding ofthe relevant teachings. However, it should be apparent that the presentteachings may be practiced without such details. In other instances,well known methods, procedures, components, and/or circuitry have beendescribed at a relatively high-level, without detail, in order to avoidunnecessarily obscuring aspects of the present teachings.

The following implementations introduce a comment management system andprocess for facilitating navigation of comments that are linked todifferent segments of electronic content. The presentation of commentindicators that notify a user as to the existence, presence, oravailability of a comment in a previous and/or subsequent segment canallow users to remain cognizant of the overall comment context for thelarger collection of electronic content. Furthermore, this system canoffer users a broader awareness of the existence or availability of anycomments in the electronic content as a whole, even while viewing asegment that does not include comments. These tools can providecollaborative document users the ability to more clearly distinguishcomments for a currently viewed content portion from indicators forcomments on previous or subsequent segments of content. In addition, thecomment indicators are configured to transition between a low visibilitymode and a high visibility mode in response to user inputs, whichensures that users are not distracted by comment informationinapplicable to their currently viewed segment of electronic content.

As introduced above, applications such as word processors, publishers,spreadsheets, presentation software, and others can be used to generateelectronic documents or content. For purposes of this description, theterm “electronic content” or “document” includes any digital data thatmay be presented (e.g., visually or audibly presented), including butnot limited to an electronic document, a media stream, a web page, ahypertext document, an image, digital video or a video recording,digital audio or an audio recording, animation, a markup languagedocument, such as a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) or eXtensibleMarkup Language (XML) document, a form having blank components to acceptentered data, or data describing the application of a GUI, and otherdigital data. As an example, this electronic content may includespreadsheets, presentations, or other digital-based media.

Furthermore, within some types of documents, the electronic content canbe understood to include or be segmented into one or more units thatwill be referred to as “discrete segments”. For purposes of thisapplication, the term “discrete” describes portions of content that aredistinct, separate, and/or apart from other portions. Thus, onecollection of electronic content (such as a document) can becharacterized as or by discontinuous parts/units or segments. Forexample, a user may need to “tab” through various sheets (segments) in aspreadsheet, and a user may need to move fully past one slide to viewanother slide in a presentation. Thus, discrete segments can includeindividual slides in a PowerPoint® or other presentation applicationdocument, as well as individual spreadsheets in a database such asExcel®, individual photos in a digital photo album, or other portions ofelectronic content that are not intended or configured as a default tobe presented or merged into a single display unit. A display unit may beunderstood to refer to an individual portion of electronic content thatis configured for display on the screen at one time. This is in contrastto electronic content that viewable as a substantially continuous orflowing stream or can be readily merged to form a continuously‘scrollable’ document (for example, word processor documents).

In addition, the electronic content and/or any corresponding discretesegments can include elements that will be referred to as contentportions. A “content portion” for purposes of this description includesany part of electronic content that is defined or discernable as a part.For example, a content portion may be automatically discerned from acharacteristic of the content portion itself (e.g., a letter, number,word, sentence, paragraph, section, image, symbol, or chapter of anelectronic document, or other file format designation) or may bemanually defined by a reviewer or end-user (e.g., selected collection ofwords in an electronic document, a selected portion of a digital image,a selected group of cells in a spreadsheet, a selected region in a slidefrom a presentation). Examples of content portions include portions orpieces of electronic text or other material within an electronicdocument, comments, dynamic content in the form of portions of mediastreams, such as sections of digital video or frames or sets of framesof digital video or digital audio, dynamic content in the form ofsegments or frames of animations, electronic forms, form templates, formelements, form data, actuatable element specifications or executableinstructions, and various elements presentable or accessible byreviewers within electronic content, including instances of scripted andnon-scripted dynamic content and the like.

Furthermore, an end-user (or “user”) for purposes of this application isone who creates, authors, views, develops, manages, reviews, revises, ordeletes pieces of electronic content, including the creation, viewing,or updating of comments associated with the electronic content. Anend-user includes a user of application programs, as well as theapparatus and systems described herein. Furthermore, for purpose of thisdescription, the term “software application”, “software”, or“application” refers to a computer program that performs useful work,generally unrelated to the computer itself. Some non-limiting examplesof software applications include word processors, spreadsheets,slideshows, presentation design applications, accounting systems, andtelecommunication programs, as well as gaming software, utility andproductivity tools, mobile applications, presentation graphics, andother productivity software.

In different implementations, software applications such as programsoffered in the Microsoft Office Suite® (e.g., Word®, Powerpoint®,Excel®, Visio®) and other applications can offer a variety of commentingand annotating tools. For example, Microsoft Excel® offers users toolssuch as Comments, Highlight, Underline and other formatting options,Track Changes, Compare, among others, to add comments or make changes toa document. In other applications, such as Google Sheets® and GoogleSlides®, a “Comments” option may be used to suggest modifications orprovide feedback for a document, or view comments. These arenon-limiting examples, and any other electronic content editing orcollaboration application may benefit from the disclosedimplementations.

Once a comment is added, the document as viewed by other reviewers maypresent the information included in the comments. This feature can beused to facilitate collaborative workflows. For purposes of thisdescription, data or documents being developed collaboratively includeany activity in which multiple machines and/or users operate togetherautonomously, or as directed by humans, to process information,including electronic content. Processing the information may include theactivities of acquiring the information, augmenting the information(e.g., via the addition of meta-data or comments), sorting theinformation, changing the information, deleting the information,rendering the information, aggregating the information from multiplesources, transforming the information from one form to another, andderiving new information from previously-existing information. Oneexample of a collaborative process is the cooperation of multiplereviewers to view, comment on, and make changes to a document as part ofa shared review activity.

During the viewing of comments associated with a document, end-users canbe slowed or perplexed in cases where there are large numbers ofcomments, particularly if the comments are distributed across multiplediscrete segments of electronic content. For example, a user may not beaware of comments that extend beyond the content being currently viewed,and navigation through the various comments can be unwieldy. In somecases, the ‘big picture’ progress or workflow of a document or file maybe obscured as users attempt to communicate via comments across multiplepages or sheets of a document. As will be described below, the proposedsystem provides both individual and group users the ability to moreprecisely communicate and review comments across many discrete segmentsof electronic content, providing users with a more comprehensive andintuitive sense of the review process. This in turn can improve themanagement of electronic documents and facilitate a more natural andeffective workflow. The following systems and methods can therebyfacilitate a user's navigation of the comments in a document as well astheir awareness of subsequent (“next”) and previous comments that may bepresent throughout the sequence of discrete segments in the document.Users may more readily ascertain whether there are comments for discretesegments of a document that are not currently being displayed,significantly improving the user's productivity.

In order to better introduce the systems and methods to the reader, FIG.1 presents an example of a representative review and/or commentingenvironment for implementing a comment notification system (the systemis illustrated schematically in greater detail in FIG. 2). In differentimplementations, the environment can include a plurality of computingdevice end-users, or simply “users” who can author, edit, and/or reviewthe document (for example a first user, a second user, a third user,etc.). One or more users can interact with or manipulate data presentedvia a user device. As users collaborate on a document, various pieces orsegments of the document may be modified or otherwise associated with anote or comment. In one implementation, multiple users can access thesame document at the same time and make changes that are presented inreal-time to other users. In such cases, workflow occurs via multiple‘streams’ that are configured to push data and pull data from a centralrepository or cloud network.

In this example, a first electronic content item (“first item”) 100 isillustrated. The first item 100 can include any type of digital mediafile, as described above. In this example, first item 100 is anelectronic database that includes a plurality of spreadsheets (“sheets”)110. Each sheet is represented here as a small rectangular shape. Whileonly a first sheet (or initial sheet) 102, a second sheet 104, a thirdsheet 106, a fourth sheet 108, and a last sheet 110 are identified forpurposes of this example, it should be understood that the document caninclude any number of sheets.

For purposes of this description, an “interface” refers to a mechanismfor communicating content through a client application to an applicationuser. For example, interfaces may include pop-up windows that may bepresented to a user via native application user interfaces (UIs),controls, actuatable interfaces, interactive buttons or other objectsthat may be shown to a user through native application UIs, as well asmechanisms that are native to a particular application for presentingassociated content with those native controls. Furthermore, an“actuation” or “actuation event” refers to an event (or specificsequence of events) associated with a particular input or use of anapplication via an interface, which can trigger a change in the displayof the application.

Some of the individual sheets are presented in a magnified view in FIG.1, including the first sheet 102, the second sheet 104, and the thirdsheet 106. Each sheet will be displayed in the database application viaa first region of a graphical user interface, herein referred to as anelectronic content viewport interface, or electronic content viewinginterface (“content interface”) 170. In some implementations, thecontent interface 170 can be positioned or located adjacent or proximateto a second region, herein referred to as a comment interface 180. Thecontent interface 170 can be configured to display or present variousportions of the electronic document. In addition, the comment interface180 is configured to display or present a comment listing (whichincludes any comments 150 that are associated with the currently viewedsegment of content) as well as comment indictors 120 for commentsassociated with the previous and/or subsequent sheets. The comments 150can be added, for example, by one or more users of the document withpermission to review or edit the document.

In some implementations, the system can be configured to provideguidance to a user that can signal whether the document includesadditional or other comments for currently hidden or not-viewed content.Referring to the first sheet 102, a first comment indicator (“firstindicator”) 122 is displayed near an upper boundary (or first end) ofthe comment interface 180, a second comment indicator (“secondindicator”) 124 is displayed near a lower boundary (or second end) ofthe comment interface 180. A first comment 152 is also displayed in thecomment interface 180. In some implementations, the system can beconfigured to minimize the visible presence of the comment indicators.This can provide a user with greater clarity or certainty regarding thecontext of the comment indicators and allow the user to better focus onthe comments for the currently viewed page, rather than distract theuser by the presence of these comment indicators. For example, in someimplementations, the comment indicators can be substantiallytransparent, translucent, dimmed, reduced in size, obstructed, orotherwise less noticeable or more subtle relative to comments 150; thistype of low visibility mode for the comment indicators will be discussedfurther below.

In addition, the comment interface of the second sheet 104 includes ordisplays a third comment indicator (“third indicator) 132 and a fourthcomment indicator (“fourth indicator”) 134, and does not include anycomments for the currently viewed sheet. The comment interface of thethird sheet 106 includes or displays a fifth comment indicator (“fifthindicator”) 142, a sixth comment indicator (“sixth indictor”) 144, aswell as second and third comments 154.

While viewing the first sheet 102, a user can readily observe or noticethat the first sheet 102 includes a comment (first comment 152), relatedor corresponding to a content portion in the first sheet 102. However, auser can also take note of the first indicator 122, which can signal thepresence or availability of a comment associated with another page orsheet. In this case, because the first sheet 102 is the first sheet inthe sequence, the first indicator 122 is actually identifying thepresence of a final or last comment 190 toward the end of the sequence.The second indicator 124 can signal the presence of the next availablecomment on a future or subsequent sheet—in this case, on third sheet106.

Similarly, while viewing the next sheet (second sheet 104), a user canreadily observe or notice that the content of second sheet 104 is notassociated with any comments. However, a user can also take note of thethird indicator 132, which can signal the existence or availability of acomment associated with another page or sheet. In this case, because thesecond sheet 104 is between two other sheets that both include comments,the third indicator 132 is identifying the presence of the first comment152 on the first sheet 102. The fourth indicator 134 can signal thepresence of the next available comment on a future or subsequentsheet—in this case, on third sheet 106. Thus, as noted earlier, theindicators can not only serve to let the user know about comments in aprevious/upcoming sheet, but in cases where there are no comments for acurrently viewed sheet, allow the user to recognize that even though nocomments are available for the currently viewed sheet, the document as awhole does in fact have comments associated with other pages.

While viewing the next sheet (third sheet 106), a user can similarlyreadily observe or notice that the content of third sheet 106 includescomments (second and third comments 154), related or corresponding tocontent portion(s) in the third sheet 106. In addition, a user can alsotake note of the fifth indicator 142, which can signal the presence oravailability of a comment associated with another page or sheet. In thiscase, because the third sheet 106 is ‘after’ or subsequent to a sheetthat does not include comments (second sheet 104), the fifth indicator142 is actually identifying the presence of the first comment 152 on thefirst sheet 102. The sixth indicator 144 can signal the presence of thenext available comment on a future or subsequent sheet—in this case, ona fourth sheet 108 (not shown here). If the third sheet had been thelast sheet in the sequence, the sixth indicator 144 could instead havesignaled the presence of the first comment 152 on the first sheet 102,creating an impression of a “cycle” of comments.

By providing subtle signals in the form of indicators, the commentinterface can be used to augment a user's understanding of the documentrevisions or notes as a whole without disrupting work on the currentlyviewed segment. Additional details regarding this system will now beprovided with reference to FIG. 2.

Referring now to FIG. 2, an example of a representative architecture ofa comment notification management system (“system”) 200 is depicted. Indifferent implementations, the system 200 can be configured to presentuser interfaces for display of electronic content and associatedcomment-related messages. The system 200 can be further configured toupdate the content and comments shown based on the discrete segmentbeing viewed. It is to be understood that the system 200 presented hereis merely an example implementation and that a wide variety of otherimplementations are possible.

In different implementations, the system 200 can include or be incommunication with one or more end-user systems (“user device”) 250. Theuser device 250 can include a display device used in connection with anapplication to display graphical elements generated by a user interfaceto an end-user. Furthermore, the user device 250 also includes one ormore input devices used to receive commands or other input from the user(user input 260). While only one user device 250 is shown in FIG. 2,other implementations can include any number of user devices.

A comment interface display module 226 can be configured to generatevarious graphical user interfaces in the application for viewing andediting portions of electronic content 290. For example, the commentinterface display module 226 may be configured to generate the varioususer interfaces that will be described below in connection with FIGS.3-11, including but not limited to the content interface, the commentinterface, comments, comment indicators, and other output orpresentation interfaces.

In different implementations, when electronic content 290 is provided ormade available to the system, a segments identification module 202 canbe configured to process the electronic content and determine whetherthe electronic content includes discrete segments of content, and if sofurther identify the sequence and type of discrete segments. Inaddition, the segments identification module 202 can determine whichsegment is being currently viewed or is displayed in the contentinterface (“current segment”) 206, as well as whether there are priordiscrete segments 204 that occur before the current segment 206, and/orsubsequent segments 208 that occur after the current segment 206 in thesequence.

A comments module 210 receives the information identifying the segments,and can determine whether any prior segments are associated withcomments (prior segment 212), whether the current segment is associatedwith comments (current segment 214), and/or whether any subsequentsegments 216 are associated with comments. This information can beprovided to or received by a comment detector module 220, which cannotify an indicator module 222 of the availability of comments incurrently hidden discrete segments (before or after the currentsegment). The indicator module 222 can be configured to generate thecomment indicator. In addition, both the comment indicator and anycomments that have been detected can be submitted to a comment listdisplay component 224 to create the appropriate comment list for displayin the comment interface (see comment interface display 226).

In different implementations, the user may submit various types ofinput, such as a mouse hover or a click, that are associated with acomment indicator. Such input can be received by a user input processor262, which—based on the type of input that is detected—can generate anappropriate response. In this example, a hover or mouseover event orother such user input associated with the comment indicator, is referredto as a selection start input event 264, and the termination or absenceof any hover or input associated with the comment indicator is referredto as a selection end event 266. In addition, an active selection (suchas a click or other command-type selection) of the comment indicator isreferred to as an actuation event 268. When there is no user input thatis associated with the comment indicator, the indicator can remain inlow visibility mode 276, which can include a significant diminishment ofthe appearance of the comment indicator. In cases where there is firstuser input associated with the comment indicator such as a mouse-hover,the system can trigger transition to an indicator high visibility mode274, which can include a brightening or increase in size of the commentindicator. If that user input is removed or terminated, the indicatorcan return to a low visibility mode 276 (see FIGS. 3-11). Furthermore,if an actuation is detected, the system can navigate to a differentdiscrete segment (navigation module 278).

For purposes of clarity, one implementation of a comment indicatorprocess will be presented now with reference to FIGS. 3-7. In FIG. 3, adatabase application 300 is depicted with a graphical user interface,where the graphical user interface includes a first region and a secondregion. Throughout this description, the first region may be referred toas a content interface 310, and may be configured primarily to displayportions of the selected electronic content. In addition, the secondregion may be referred to as a comment interface 320 throughout thedescription, and may be configured primarily to display informationassociated with comments for the content presented in the first region.As noted above, collaboratively edited electronic documents frequentlyinclude comments distributed throughout the electronic document. Asusers view the document, they usually view both the content of theelectronic document and any associated comments. The comments aretypically presented in a context that allows a user to determine whichportion of the content is linked to a particular comment. In thisexample, the content interface 310 displays a first sheet 312, and thecomment interface 320 displays a first comment list 322. The firstcomment list 322 includes a first comment 332 and a second comment 334associated with the content of the first sheet 312, as well as a firstindicator 342.

In different implementations, one or more of the comments for acurrently viewed sheet can include provisions for informing users of anidentity 350 of the comment author (e.g., a name, or an image such as aphotograph of the person), and/or the content of the comment (“commentcontent”) 352. This allows a user to quickly review the comment whileviewing the corresponding content portion. Comments can also include anappearance that is substantially solid, clear, and obvious in order tobe easily recognizable to the user. In this case, each comment isbounded or defined by a solid rectangular outline, though in otherimplementations, comments can be bounded, surrounded, or boxed by anyshape outline, or may not include an outline. In some implementations,the comments may be highlighted or formatted in a way to clearlydistinguish them from the background of the comment interface.

In contrast, comment indicators can be configured as relatively simplegraphical representations. The comment indicators can include little tono content, and/or have a relatively subtle or unobtrusive appearance.For example, although the first indicator 342 in FIG. 3 has asubstantially rectangular-shaped outline, similar to the comments above,it is disposed proximate to a lower end of the comment interface 320,and is presented such that the box appears to be partially obstructed bya lowermost edge 344 of the comment interface 320 (low visibility mode398). While in low visibility mode 398, the overall shape commentindicator can be similar in appearance to a cropped or abbreviatedversion of the comment ‘cards’ or boxes that may be displayed in thecomment interface for the currently viewed comment. In someimplementations, the comment indicator can be cropped such that itcorresponds to between 30%-80% of what the actual comment sizeassociated with the previous/next sheet would approximately have. Inother implementations, there may be no cropping effect, or the croppingeffect may be minimal, while the indicator is ‘ghosted’ (see FIG. 8) orotherwise be less noticeable or apparent. Thus, the first indicator 342is configured to be less intrusive by seeming to hide or ‘peek’ abovethe lowermost edge 344. In addition, such a reduction in size of thecomment notification can improve the overall user experience of thefeature on smaller displays, as the space required by the notificationsystem is also reduced.

Furthermore, in some implementations, the outline of and/or symbols thatmay be included in the first indicator 342 can appear faded,translucent, include a broken line, or be lighter in tone or shade,relative to the standard appearance of comments displayed in the commentinterface, again diminishing the prominence of the indicator (seeadditional details on a ghosted effect in FIG. 8) and increasing its lowvisibility attribute(s). In addition, while in some cases the identityof the upcoming comment's author may be displayed, in otherimplementations—as shown in FIG. 3—the identity may be masked by a blankicon, a symbol, a pictorial representation or shape, or there may be noindication at all of authorship. These characteristics of the commentindicator's appearance facilitate a user's ability to distinguish orreadily ascertain that the comment indicator is directed to a sectionthat is not located on the currently viewed sheet, and more easilyattend only to a review of the current sheet, without diversion fromadditional information that is not relevant to their review of thecurrent sheet.

In different implementations, the comment indicator can be further oralternatively configured to minimize disruption to a user's ability tofocus or attend to the currently viewed sheet while still providingclear context about the previous and/or next comments. For example, thefirst indicator 342 as shown does not include content related to thecontent of the next comment. Rather, in some implementations, theinformation presented in the first indicator 342 may be limited to asymbolic representation 392 of upcoming text. In FIG. 3, a series ofelongated strips, blocks, or thick lines are displayed. This can beunderstood to convey the idea of text and/or information without anactual presentation of any text and/or information. In oneimplementation, the blocky lines are similar in appearance totraditionally redacted or strike-through text. For example, a commentindicator can be configured to at least initially to conceal or hide anyalphanumeric text from appearing or being displayed within an interiorregion of the first actuatable comment indicator, where the interiorregion refers to the space or area contained or bounded by or within thecomment indicator.

In other implementations, the comment indicator may not include anyinformation, may be devoid of any text, may primarily include a blurred,foggy, or otherwise substantially opaque visual effect (“ghosting”) overtext/information that would be in the previous or upcoming comment(thereby obscuring the text/information), may appear substantially blankor empty, or may include only iconic content or symbolic or pictorialrepresentation(s) that are not text-based. In other implementations, thecomment indicator can include substantially illegible or indiscerniblecontent, such that what is displayed in an interior region of thecomment indicator is not clear enough to be read. By concealing orremoving any actual words or values in the field, the comment indicatorcan help users avoid situations in which the user mistakenly scans eachof the comment items listed in the comment interface and assumes theyall pertain to the currently viewed segment, leading to an applicationof the comment to the wrong sheet. Furthermore, while in someimplementations the comment indicator may be associated with a generaltitle 388 identifying the feature (in this example, “Next Sheet'sComment >”) the title 388 can be optional in other implementations. Inany event, the title 388 can be understood to be limited in scope tofeature or tool identification, rather than information that is relatedto the comment content itself

The use of symbols or visual effects suggesting redacted text, ‘ghostedout’ text, the concealment of any alphanumeric text, or in some cases, ablank field that reveals no text or information—within the commentindicator interior space can minimize errors by precluding a user frominadvertently engaging with the content of the comment for theprevious/next sheet while viewing the currently viewed sheet. Forexample, this approach can help the user maintain focus on the currentsheet, rather than become distracted by edits or comments that lie aheador are not related to the currently viewed content. It is well known inneuroscience and cognitive psychology that persons with the ability toread (i.e., those who are literate) will be compelled to automaticallyread any text that is placed before them, whether or not the person madea conscious decision to read that text. In other words, the brain willinvoluntarily and spontaneously read any alphanumeric characters orwords if they become available in the person's field of view. Incontrast, images, shapes, and colors are not associated with this typeof ‘automatic’ effect. Thus, by providing users with comment indicatorsthat do not include any text about the content of the upcoming (orprevious) comment, and/or limiting the comment indicators to symbolicrepresentations or blank space, the user can remain focused on thecontent related to the sheet that is presently being viewed, and make aconscious choice if they wish to reveal comment content for other pagesor sheets. This can greatly improve workflow efficiency and accuracy.

In different implementations, the system can include provisions foradjusting the prominence or noticeability of a comment indicator inresponse to a user input event. For example, as a user navigates througha document and its discrete segments, they can desire confirmation orclarification of the presence of a Next Comment or Previous Comment. Asanother example, the user may not have been aware of the low visibilitycomment indicator (first indicator 342). In some implementations, thesystem can provide a mechanism for bringing the indicator to the user'sattention in response to a particular user input. For example such aninput may include movement of the cursor in close proximity to or overthe comment indicator. For purposes of this application, a mouseoverevent refers to an occurrence of the mouse cursor being moved over atarget element. In this case, the target element is the commentindicator and, in some cases, any corresponding titles. However, inother implementations, any other types of interactions with theindicator can include the user input event, including touchscreengestures, hand gestures, keyboard commands, virtual commands, or anyother instructions.

In FIG. 4, a pointer or cursor 400 is shown hovering ‘above’ thegraphical control element that includes the first indicator 342. Inresponse, the first indicator can respond by a transition to a highvisibility mode 498. The trigger area (the display region associatedwith the hover-reveal) can vary, but can at least include the commentindicator itself. In some implementations, the trigger area can alsoinclude the title 388. It should be understood that the commentindicator can be configured to return to low visibility mode when theuser input is removed or ended.

As shown in the example of FIGS. 3 and 4, in response to the hover ormouseover user input event, the comment indicator can be configured tobecome increasingly conspicuous or manifest. In one implementation, thiscan occur in a substantially instantaneous manner where the commentindicator shifts rapidly from a partially-concealed and/or translucentappearance to a full-size, solid, box. In some other implementations,the comment indicator can rapidly slide upward from the lower edge (ordownward from the upper edge), or otherwise ‘pop-out’ in appearance,such that the previous ‘cropped’ appearance is replaced by an uncropped,standard size comment box appearance.

In other implementations, the transition may be more gradual, such thatthe duration of the mouseover event (up to a maximum time) correspondsto how obtrusive the comment indicator will become. In other words, if amouseover event occurs for only a moment (e.g., as the mouse is movedswiftly from one point on the screen to another point that includes thetrigger area) the comment indicator may not transition at all, ortransition only slightly, such that there is only a brief sharpening ofthe box or a momentary slide up/pop out, before the comment indicatorreverts to its more subtle (default) low visibility appearance.Conversely, the positioning or resting of the cursor over the triggerarea for a longer period can induce a gradual transition from anunobtrusive (low visibility) state to an obtrusive (high visibility)state. This can also occur in a manner similar to an ethereal orinsubstantial image that grows increasingly solid, larger, and/orbright.

In some implementations, the system can include provisions to receive acommand associated with the comment indicator, for example following orat the same time as the mouseover event. The command can instruct thesystem to navigate from the currently viewed sheet to the next availablesheet with comment(s). For example, a mouse-click on the commentindicator and/or a particular command keystroke can trigger thisnavigation. Thus, in some implementations, the comment indicator caninclude an actuatable interface, where the comment indicator is capableof being actuated, thereby eliciting or triggering a response from thesystem. In FIG. 4, the first indicator 342 has been actuated, or isotherwise associated with an actuating event such as a mouse-click orkeystroke or tap, which leads to a change in the display of both thecontent interface 310 and the comment interface 320.

As shown in FIG. 5, the content interface 310 now displays a secondsheet 512 (i.e., SHEET 2 tab identified in a lower margin ofspreadsheet) and the comment interface 320 now displays a second commentlist 522. The second comment list 522 differs from the first commentlist 322 of FIGS. 3 and 4, including comments associated with content ofthe currently viewed discrete segment (second sheet 512) rather thancomments for the first sheet. In addition, the first indicator 342 ofFIGS. 3 and 4 has been removed. Instead, the second comment list 522includes a plurality of comments 500 that are of a length or number suchthat the comment interface 320 now includes a scrollable pane 592,permitting a user to navigate through all of the comments for thecurrent discrete segment. In FIG. 5, the second comment list 522 isshown to include at least three comments, where a second comment 502 isdisposed near the top of the list, followed by a third comment 504, anda fourth comment 506. The substantial entirety of the second comment 502and third comment 504 are shown, while the fourth comment 506, extendingfurther than the available space remaining in the comment interface 320,is cut off. However, if a user scrolls or otherwise navigates throughthe comments, the full content of the fourth comment 506 will berevealed (see FIG. 6), while the previous comments can ‘move up’ and/ormay become hidden.

As noted earlier, in some implementations, the system can includeprovisions for informing the user as to the availability of comments ona previous sheet or page. For example, there can be a comment indicatorthat is associated with a comment for content that occurred earlier inthe sequence, rather than later. This is illustrated in FIG. 5, where asecond indicator 542 is displayed toward the top of the commentinterface 320, adjacent or proximate to an uppermost edge 544 of thecomment interface 320, or toward a first end of the comment list. Thecharacteristics of the second indicator 542 can include all aspects,details, and features described above with respect to implementations ofthe first indicator 342.

In addition, while in some implementations the spacing between thecomment indicator and the adjacent comment can be similar to the spacingbetween two comments, in other implementations, the system can alsoinclude provisions for more clearly distinguishing the commentindicator(s) from the comments themselves. For example, in FIG. 5, thesecond indicator 542 is set apart from the second comment 502 by a firstdistance 550. In other words, there is relatively more space extendingbetween the indicator and the comment than there is between twoneighboring comments (see for example, a relatively smaller intercommentdistance 552). In some implementations, the first distance 550 can be ofsufficient size that the transition from a cropped appearance (lowvisibility mode) to an uncropped or full size appearance (highvisibility mode), for example in response to a mouseover event, canoccur (a) without obstruction of the nearest comment by the full-sized(high visibility) indicator, and/or (b) without requiring any commentsto be pushed down or up to accommodate the display of the larger-sizedcomment indicator. The additional or larger spacing also helps a usermore readily differentiate the indicators from the comments, andimproves the flow of the user experience itself

As described briefly with respect to FIG. 1, in some implementations, acomment indicator that is provided toward the top of the commentinterface can be configured—upon actuation—to navigate not to a previoussheet in the sequence but instead to the last sheet in the sequence thatis associated with a comment. This can occur, for example, in caseswhere the sheet that is currently being viewed is the first or initialsheet in the sequence, and so any ‘previous’ comment would be loopedback toward the end of the sequence. In some implementations, any titlepresented with such a comment indicator may also be modified to insteaddenote the return to the opposite end of the electronic contentsequence, rather than to a ‘previous’ sheet, (e.g., ‘Jump to LastComment’). Conversely, a comment indicator that is provided toward thebottom of the comment interface can be configured—upon actuation—tonavigate not to a subsequent sheet in the sequence but instead to thefirst sheet in the sequence that is associated with a comment. This canoccur, for example, in cases where the sheet that is currently beingviewed is the last or final sheet in the sequence and/or there aresubsequent sheets but they do not have any comments, and so any ‘next’comment would be looped back toward the beginning of the sequence. Insome implementations, any title presented with such a comment indicatormay also be modified to instead denote the return to the opposite end ofthe electronic content sequence, rather than to a ‘next’ sheet (e.g.,‘Return to First Comment’).

Referring to FIG. 6, as a user scrolls through the second comment list522, the comment interface 320 can, in one implementation, hide orconceal the second indicator 542 of FIG. 5. It should be understood thatscrolling back up toward the top of the comment list would alsoreinstate the display of the second indicator 542. In FIG. 6, thecomments are of a length or number such that no comment indicators arenow shown. In other words, in some implementations, the commentindicators are configured for display only when the start of thecomments of a comment list is being presented, and/or when the end ofthe comments of a comment list is being presented (or when there are noavailable comments). Thus, the currently viewable information of thesecond comment list 522 of FIG. 6 differs from the currently viewableinformation of the second comment list 522 of FIG. 5.

In FIG. 6, the comment interface 320 now displays the third comment 504near the top of the interface, followed by the fourth comment 506, afifth comment 600, and a partial view of a sixth comment 602. Thus,while the substantial entirety of the third comment 504, fourth comment506, and fifth comment 600 is shown, the sixth comment 602 isillustrated as extending further than the available space remaining inthe comment interface 320. However, if a user scrolls or otherwisenavigates further through the comments, the full content of the sixthcomment 602 will be revealed, while the previous comments can ‘move up’and/or become hidden. This is depicted in FIG. 7, where the secondcomment list 522 has been fully ‘scrolled’ through, and the commentinterface 320 now displays the fifth comment 600 and the sixth comment602, as well as a seventh (last) comment 702 for this sheet.

Following or below the seventh comment 702, a third indicator 742 is nowvisible, in low visibility mode. As noted above, the indicator cantransition from low visibility mode to high visibility mode in responseto a user input event. It should be understood that in someimplementations, the transition from low visibility mode to highvisibility mode need not occur, and a user can proceed directly to anactuation of the actuatable interface by clicking on the indicator whileit is still in low visibility mode. The third indicator 742 can beconfigured to, upon actuation, change the display in content interface310 to the next sheet with comments (for purposes of example, this canbe SHEET 3), as well as display a third comment list in the commentinterface 320.

Furthermore, it can be seen that the third indicator 742 is spaced apartfrom the seventh comment 702 by a second distance 750. The seconddistance 750 can be configured to clearly distinguish the thirdindicator 742 from the comments above. In other words, the commentindicator may be spaced apart and/or isolated (i.e., be spaced apartfrom comments in some implementations. For example, in FIG. 7, thedistance between the third indicator 742 and seventh comment 702 isgreater than intercomment distance 552. In other words, there isrelatively more space extending between the indicator and the commentthan there is between two neighboring comments. In some implementations,the second distance 750 can be substantially similar to first distance550 (see FIG. 5), and/or there can be a standard or default minimumspacing between a comment indicator and the nearest comment (if any),which can add to the uniformity and predictability of the userexperience. Furthermore, the second distance 750 can be of sufficientsize that the transition from low visibility mode to high visibilitymode (in response to a mouseover event, for example) can occur (a)without obstruction of the nearest comment by the comment indicator,and/or (b) without requiring the comments to be pushed up to accommodatethe display of the larger-sized comment indicator.

As described above, in different implementations, the appearance of acomment indicator can differ relative to the appearance of standardcomments. In some implementations, the comment indicator's overallappearance and/or its interior contents can be ‘ghosted’, translucent,have a faded or translucent appearance, and/or seem substantiallytransparent. Such effects can help minimize the potential disruption toworkflow for a currently viewed sheet, and accentuate the differencebetween comments and comment indicators in a comment list. In someimplementations, this and other low visibility appearance parameters maybe part of default appearance settings for the comment indicators, whilein other implementations, low visibility appearance parameters (e.g.,transparency, ghosted effect, brightness, line type and format, lineweight, symbolic representations of text, the extent of thecropped/reduced size, rapidity and/or duration of transition between lowand high visibility in response to user input, rapidity and/or durationof transition between high and low visibility in response to the removalof the user input, etc.) are selected or adjusted by a user.

One example of this is shown in FIG. 8, where the first sheet 312 isagain shown, along with a modified or ghosted first indicator 842.However, in contrast to FIG. 3, where the first indicator 342 appearedrelatively solid or of a normal line weight, the ghosted first indicator842 is significantly less solid or apparent than the graphics comprisingthe comments. Such a ghosted effect 898 can allow the comment indicatorto remain substantially inconspicuous, minimizing workflow disruption,until a user actively decides to engage with the indicator and anysubsequent/previous comments. In some implementations, once a mouseoverevent occurs, the ghosted comment indicator can transition (immediatelyor gradually) to a solid appearance, and/or shift to a “reveal” or highvisibility mode. In other implementations, a mouseover event may onlyprompt the shift of the indicator to a substantially high visibilitymode, while it retains the ghosted effect.

In order to allow the reader to better appreciate some of theimplementations of the proposed systems, an example of a commentindicator process for a slideshow application will be presented now withreference to FIGS. 9-11. In FIG. 9, a presentation or slideshowapplication 900 is depicted that includes a content interface 910 and acomment interface 920. An optional slideshow preview pane 990 is alsodepicted, disposed on a side opposite to the comment interface 920 inthis example. As noted above, collaboratively edited electronicdocuments frequently include comments distributed throughout theelectronic document. As users view the document, they usually view boththe content of the electronic document and any associated comments. Thecomments are typically presented in a context that allows a user todetermine which portion of the content is linked to a particularcomment. In this example, the content interface 910 displays a firstslide 912, and the slideshow preview pane 990 displays a plurality ofslides 992 that include the document, here including four slides. Otherimplementations can include any number of slides. In addition, thecomment interface 920 displays a first comment list 922. The firstcomment list 922 includes a first indicator 942 and a second indicator944, where the first indicator 942 and the second indicator 944 arespaced apart by a third distance 946. The third distance 946 correspondsto the spacing that occurs when no comments are available for thecurrently viewed slide, and the comment indicator(s) are the onlyelements in the comment list. In other words, the indicator for a‘previous’ comment remains proximate to the top or a first end of thecomment interface 920, and the indicator for a ‘next’ comments remainsproximate to the bottom or a second end of the comment interface 920,even when there are no comments available for the current page.

It should be understood that the comment indicators that areincorporated in this type of presentation application can include all ofthe characteristics, features, aspects, and functions of the commentindicators described above with respect to FIGS. 1-8. For example, eachof the comment indicators can be configured as relatively simplegraphical representations with little to no substantive content, and/orhave a relatively subtle or unobtrusive appearance. Specifically, inFIG. 9, the information presented in the first indicator 942 is limitedto a symbolic representation 998 of upcoming text.

In addition, in some implementations, an appearance of one or both ofthe comment indicators can apply or embody a ghosted effect (see FIG.8), thereby augmenting the low visibility aspect. The first indicator942 is disposed proximate to an uppermost edge of the comment interface920 or first end 962 of the comment list 922 and the second indicator944 is disposed proximate to a lower or bottommost edge of the commentinterface 920 or a second end 964 of the first comment list 922. Thecomment indicators are initially displayed in a low visibility mode 960.Following a user input event (e.g., a mouseover event), the indicatorcan transition to high visibility mode. This is illustrated in FIG. 10where a cursor 1000 is shown disposed “atop” or “above” the commentindicator. The system can respond by transitioning the comment indicatorto a high visibility mode 1060, which can include an increase in theline weight or a decrease of the ghosted effect if the comment indicatorhad been ghosted.

Upon actuation (e.g., a mouse-click or other input-selection) of theactuatable interface comprising a comment indicator, the system can beconfigured to respond by display of a different slide in the contentinterface 910 as well as a different comment list in the commentinterface 920. As shown in FIG. 11, as a result of actuation of thesecond indicator 944, the content interface 910 now displays a secondslide 1112 and the comment interface 920 now displays a second commentlist 1122. The second comment list 1122 can be seen to differ from thefirst comment list 922 of FIGS. 9 and 10; whereas the first comment list922 did not include any comments, the second comment list 1122 includesa plurality of comments that are associated with content of thecurrently viewed discrete segment (second slide 1112). In addition, thefirst indicator 942 and second indicator 944 of FIGS. 9 and 10 have beenremoved. Instead, the second comment list 1122 includes comments thatare of a length or number resulting in the comment interface 920including a scrollable pane 1198, permitting a user to navigate throughall of the comments for the current discrete segment. In the example ofFIG. 11, the second comment list 1122 is shown to include at least fourcomments. Additional comments and/or another comment indicator may berevealed when a user scrolls through the list, and/or there may be acomment indicator available at the bottom of the second comment list1122 that becomes visible when the list has been ‘scrolled up’. In otherimplementations, the comment interface can also include a text responsefield, where one or more of the comments can receive, store and/orcommunicate replies associated with a particular comment.

As noted earlier, in some implementations, the system can includeprovisions for informing the user as to the availability of comments ona previous sheet or page. For example, there can be a comment indicatorthat is associated with a comment for content that occurred earlier inthe sequence, rather than later. This is illustrated in FIG. 11, where athird indicator 1142 is displayed proximate to an uppermost edge of thecomment interface 920, or a first end 1162 of the second comment list1122. The characteristics of the third indicator 1142 can include allaspects, details, and features described above with respect toimplementations of the comment indicators. In addition, the spacingbetween the third indicator 1142 and a first comment 1152 (a fourthdistance 1150) is greater than an intercomment distance 1160. In someimplementations, the fourth distance 1150 can be 1.5 to 3 times greaterthan the intercomment distance 1160. In another example, the fourthdistance 1150 can be at least greater than a height of the lowvisibility comment indicator.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart illustrating an implementation of a method 1200of managing the presentation of comments and comment indicators whileviewing electronic content. In FIG. 12, a first step 1210 includespresenting, on a display of a user device, a graphical user interfaceincluding a content interface and a comment interface. The contentinterface is configured to display at least a first portion of a firstdiscrete segment in a sequence of electronic content, where the sequenceof electronic content including a plurality of discrete segments, andthe comment interface is configured to display a list comprising of oneor more comment items. A second step 1220 includes identifying anavailability of a first comment associated with a second portion of asecond discrete segment in the sequence of electronic content, where thesecond discrete segment is hidden from view while the first discretesegment is being displayed. A third step 1230 involves adding, inresponse to identifying the availability of the first comment, a firstactuatable comment indicator to the list of comment items. In someimplementations, the first actuatable comment indicator is configured toenable automatic navigation to the second portion.

A fourth step 1240 includes displaying the first actuatable commentindicator in the comment interface. The first actuatable commentindicator is initially in a low visibility mode. A fifth step 1250 caninclude transitioning, in response to a first user input eventassociated with the first actuatable comment indicator, an appearance ofthe first actuatable comment indicator from low visibility mode to ahigh visibility mode during the first user input event. Furthermore,some implementations can further include a sixth step 1260 of switching,in response to actuation of the first actuatable comment indicator, froma display of the first portion of the first discrete segment in thecontent interface to a display of at least the second portion of thesecond discrete segment in the content interface.

In different implementations, the display of the first actuatablecontent indicator (fourth step 1240) can alternatively be configuredinitially to conceal any text from appearing in an interior region ofthe first actuatable comment indicator. In other implementations,additional steps may be included. For example, in some implementations,the method also includes removing the first actuatable comment indicatorfrom the comment interface display after actuation of the firstactuatable comment indicator. In another example, the method may includedisplaying the first comment in the comment interface. In someimplementations, the comment interface includes a first end and a secondend, and the method further includes steps of presenting the firstactuatable comment indicator in the comment interface proximate to (a)the second end of the comment interface when the second discrete segmentis subsequent to the first discrete segment in the sequence, and (b) thefirst end of the comment interface when the second discrete segment isprior to the first discrete segment in the sequence.

In other implementations the first actuatable comment indicator includesan outline that is initially translucent, and the method furtherinvolves solidifying, in response to the first user input eventassociated with the first actuatable comment indicator, the outline ofthe first actuatable comment indicator. In one implementation, the listof comment items includes a plurality of comments that are associatedwith the first discrete segment, and the method further involvesconcealing the first actuatable comment indicator when the plurality ofcomments being displayed in the comment interface extends between thefirst end and the second end. In another implementation, the method caninclude identifying an availability of a second comment associated witha third portion of a third discrete segment in the sequence ofelectronic content, the third discrete segment being hidden from viewwhile the second discrete segment is being displayed, as well as adding,in response to identifying the availability of second comment, a secondactuatable comment indicator to the list of comment items, the secondactuatable comment indicator being configured to enable a user tonavigate to the third portion. In addition, the method can includedisplaying the second actuatable comment indicator in the commentinterface, wherein the second actuatable comment indicator is initiallyin a low visibility mode, and transitioning, in response to a first userinput event associated with the second actuatable comment indicator, anappearance of the second actuatable comment indicator from lowvisibility mode to a high visibility mode during the first user inputevent. In other words, the second actuatable comment indicator can berevealed in its entirety, rather than in its cropped or abbreviatedform. The method may further involve switching, in response to actuationof the second actuatable comment indicator, from a display of the seconddiscrete segment in the content interface to a display of at least thethird portion of the third discrete segment in the content interface.

In some other implementations, the method also includes identifying anavailability of a second comment associated with the first portion ofthe first discrete segment in the sequence of electronic content, andthen adding, in response to identifying the availability of secondcomment, a second actuatable comment indicator to the list of commentitems, the second actuatable comment indicator being configured toenable a user to return to the first portion. This can be followed by astep of displaying the second actuatable comment indicator in thecomment interface, wherein the second actuatable comment indicator isinitially in a low visibility mode, and then transitioning, in responseto a first user input event associated with the second actuatablecomment indicator, an appearance of the second actuatable commentindicator from low visibility mode to a high visibility mode during thefirst user input event. The method may further include switching, inresponse to actuation of the second actuatable comment indicator, from adisplay of the second discrete segment in the content interface to adisplay of at least the first portion of the first discrete segment inthe content interface.

In some cases, an interior of the first actuatable comment indicator isblank, and in other cases, an interior of the first actuatable commentindicator includes a placeholder represented or symbolized by whatappears to be redacted text, or blocked elongated strips. In otherimplementations, the comment indicator can include substantiallyillegible or indiscernible content, such that what is displayed in aninterior region of the comment indicator is not clear enough to be read.In one implementation, the electronic content includes a database, andthe first discrete segment and the second discrete segment eachcorrespond to an individual worksheet in the database. In otherimplementations, the electronic content includes a slideshow, and thefirst discrete segment and the second discrete segment each correspondto an individual slide in the slideshow.

In addition, while the comment indicators are described as notifying auser of the availability or presence of comments on other pages, itshould be understood that this system may also be configured to indicateother kinds of information as well. This can occur when some informationor data is linked or otherwise associated with a portion of a discretesegment that is currently not being displayed, a user may be providedwith a notification that such information exists. As one example, theremay be changes or revisions made to other segments of the document; insuch cases, the comment indicator can be a revision indicator, thatallows a user to navigate directly to the next change or edit that hasoccurred in the document.

Thus, in some implementations, the disclosed implementations can beapplied to a method of managing the presentation of revisions or editswhile viewing electronic content. For example, a first step may includepresenting, on a display of a user device, a graphical user interfaceincluding a content interface and an edits interface. The contentinterface is configured to display at least a first portion of a firstdiscrete segment in a sequence of electronic content, where the sequenceof electronic content including a plurality of discrete segments, andthe edits interface is configured to display a list comprising of one ormore changes made to the document. A second step can include identifyingan availability of a first edit associated with a second portion of asecond discrete segment in the sequence of electronic content, where thesecond discrete segment is hidden from view while the first discretesegment is being displayed. A third step may involve adding, in responseto identifying the availability of the first edit, a first editindicator to the list of edit items. In some implementations, the firstedit indicator is configured to enable automatic navigation to thesecond portion.

A fourth step can include displaying the first edit indicator in theedit interface. The first edit indicator can initially be presented in alow visibility mode. A fifth step can include transitioning, in responseto a first user input event associated with the first edit indicator, anappearance of the first edit indicator from low visibility mode to ahigh visibility mode during the first user input event. Furthermore,some implementations can further include a sixth step of switching, inresponse to an actuation of the first edit indicator, from a display ofthe first portion of the first discrete segment in the content interfaceto a display of at least the second portion of the second discretesegment in the content interface.

It should be understood that all references to “comment(s)” throughoutthis description (e.g., comment interface, comment indicator, commentlist, list of comment items, comment availability, previous comment,subsequent comment, etc.) may be substituted to instead implement amechanism for managing track changes, edits, revisions, or otherinformation that has been linked or associated with different sectionsof the electronic content. For example, each of the examples describedherein may alternatively be directed to a system that provides an editinterface, edit indicators, edits list, lists of edit items, editavailability detection, edits associated with previous discretesegments, edits associated with subsequent discrete segments, etc. Thus,it is to be understood that there are many possible combinations of thefeatures that are shown in the accompanying figures and discussed inthis detailed description, and each of these features may be implementedto provide an edit notification method and/or system.

The detailed examples of systems, devices, and techniques described inconnection with FIGS. 1-12 are presented herein for illustration of thedisclosure and its benefits. Such examples of use should not beconstrued to be limitations on the logical process implementations ofthe disclosure, nor should variations of user interface methods fromthose described herein be considered outside the scope of the presentdisclosure. In some implementations, various features described in FIGS.1-12 are implemented in respective modules, which may also be referredto as, and/or include, logic, components, units, and/or mechanisms.Modules may constitute either software modules (for example, codeembodied on a machine-readable medium) or hardware modules.

In some examples, a hardware module may be implemented mechanically,electronically, or with any suitable combination thereof. For example, ahardware module may include dedicated circuitry or logic that isconfigured to perform certain operations. For example, a hardware modulemay include a special-purpose processor, such as a field-programmablegate array (FPGA) or an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC).A hardware module may also include programmable logic or circuitry thatis temporarily configured by software to perform certain operations, andmay include a portion of machine-readable medium data and/orinstructions for such configuration. For example, a hardware module mayinclude software encompassed within a programmable processor configuredto execute a set of software instructions. It will be appreciated thatthe decision to implement a hardware module mechanically, in dedicatedand permanently configured circuitry, or in temporarily configuredcircuitry (for example, configured by software) may be driven by cost,time, support, and engineering considerations.

Accordingly, the phrase “hardware module” should be understood toencompass a tangible entity capable of performing certain operations andmay be configured or arranged in a certain physical manner, be that anentity that is physically constructed, permanently configured (forexample, hardwired), and/or temporarily configured (for example,programmed) to operate in a certain manner or to perform certainoperations described herein. As used herein, “hardware-implementedmodule” refers to a hardware module. Considering examples in whichhardware modules are temporarily configured (for example, programmed),each of the hardware modules need not be configured or instantiated atany one instance in time. For example, where a hardware module includesa programmable processor configured by software to become aspecial-purpose processor, the programmable processor may be configuredas respectively different special-purpose processors (for example,including different hardware modules) at different times. Software mayaccordingly configure a particular processor or processors, for example,to constitute a particular hardware module at one instance of time andto constitute a different hardware module at a different instance oftime. A hardware module implemented using one or more processors may bereferred to as being “processor implemented” or “computer implemented.”

Hardware modules can provide information to, and receive informationfrom, other hardware modules. Accordingly, the described hardwaremodules may be regarded as being communicatively coupled. Where multiplehardware modules exist contemporaneously, communications may be achievedthrough signal transmission (for example, over appropriate circuits andbuses) between or among two or more of the hardware modules. Inimplementations in which multiple hardware modules are configured orinstantiated at different times, communications between such hardwaremodules may be achieved, for example, through the storage and retrievalof information in memory devices to which the multiple hardware moduleshave access. For example, one hardware module may perform an operationand store the output in a memory device, and another hardware module maythen access the memory device to retrieve and process the stored output.

In some examples, at least some of the operations of a method may beperformed by one or more processors or processor-implemented modules.Moreover, the one or more processors may also operate to supportperformance of the relevant operations in a “cloud computing”environment or as a “software as a service” (SaaS). For example, atleast some of the operations may be performed by, and/or among, multiplecomputers (as examples of machines including processors), with theseoperations being accessible via a network (for example, the Internet)and/or via one or more software interfaces (for example, an applicationprogram interface (API)). The performance of certain of the operationsmay be distributed among the processors, not only residing within asingle machine, but deployed across a number of machines. Processors orprocessor-implemented modules may be located in a single geographiclocation (for example, within a home or office environment, or a serverfarm), or may be distributed across multiple geographic locations.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram 1300 illustrating an example softwarearchitecture 1302, various portions of which may be used in conjunctionwith various hardware architectures herein described, which mayimplement any of the above-described features. FIG. 13 is a non-limitingexample of a software architecture and it will be appreciated that manyother architectures may be implemented to facilitate the functionalitydescribed herein. The software architecture 1302 may execute on hardwaresuch as a device 140 of FIG. 1A that includes, among other things,document storage 1070, processors, memory, and input/output (I/O)components. A representative hardware layer 1304 is illustrated and canrepresent, for example, the device 140 of FIG. 1. The representativehardware layer 1304 includes a processing unit 1306 and associatedexecutable instructions 1308. The executable instructions 1308 representexecutable instructions of the software architecture 1302, includingimplementation of the methods, modules and so forth described herein.The hardware layer 1304 also includes a memory/storage 1310, which alsoincludes the executable instructions 1308 and accompanying data. Thehardware layer 1304 may also include other hardware modules 1312.Instructions 1308 held by processing unit 1308 may be portions ofinstructions 1308 held by the memory/storage 1310.

The example software architecture 1302 may be conceptualized as layers,each providing various functionality. For example, the softwarearchitecture 1302 may include layers and components such as an operatingsystem (OS) 1314, libraries 1316, frameworks 1318, applications 1320,and a presentation layer 1344. Operationally, the applications 1320and/or other components within the layers may invoke API calls 1324 toother layers and receive corresponding results 1326. The layersillustrated are representative in nature and other softwarearchitectures may include additional or different layers. For example,some mobile or special purpose operating systems may not provide theframeworks/middleware 1318.

The OS 1314 may manage hardware resources and provide common services.The OS 1314 may include, for example, a kernel 1328, services 1330, anddrivers 1332. The kernel 1328 may act as an abstraction layer betweenthe hardware layer 1304 and other software layers. For example, thekernel 1328 may be responsible for memory management, processormanagement (for example, scheduling), component management, networking,security settings, and so on. The services 1330 may provide other commonservices for the other software layers. The drivers 1332 may beresponsible for controlling or interfacing with the underlying hardwarelayer 1304. For instance, the drivers 1332 may include display drivers,camera drivers, memory/storage drivers, peripheral device drivers (forexample, via Universal Serial Bus (USB)), network and/or wirelesscommunication drivers, audio drivers, and so forth depending on thehardware and/or software configuration.

The libraries 1316 may provide a common infrastructure that may be usedby the applications 1320 and/or other components and/or layers. Thelibraries 1316 typically provide functionality for use by other softwaremodules to perform tasks, rather than rather than interacting directlywith the OS 1314. The libraries 1316 may include system libraries 1334(for example, C standard library) that may provide functions such asmemory allocation, string manipulation, file operations. In addition,the libraries 1316 may include API libraries 1336 such as medialibraries (for example, supporting presentation and manipulation ofimage, sound, and/or video data formats), graphics libraries (forexample, an OpenGL library for rendering 2D and 3D graphics on adisplay), database libraries (for example, SQLite or other relationaldatabase functions), and web libraries (for example, WebKit that mayprovide web browsing functionality). The libraries 1316 may also includea wide variety of other libraries 1338 to provide many functions forapplications 1320 and other software modules.

The frameworks 1318 (also sometimes referred to as middleware) provide ahigher-level common infrastructure that may be used by the applications1320 and/or other software modules. For example, the frameworks 1318 mayprovide various graphic user interface (GUI) functions, high-levelresource management, or high-level location services. The frameworks1318 may provide a broad spectrum of other APIs for applications 1320and/or other software modules.

The applications 1320 include built-in applications 1340 and/orthird-party applications 1342. Examples of built-in applications 1340may include, but are not limited to, a contacts application, a browserapplication, a location application, a media application, a messagingapplication, and/or a game application. Third-party applications 1342may include any applications developed by an entity other than thevendor of the particular platform. The applications 1320 may usefunctions available via OS 1314, libraries 1316, frameworks 1318, andpresentation layer 1344 to create user interfaces to interact withusers.

Some software architectures use virtual machines, as illustrated by avirtual machine 1348. The virtual machine 1348 provides an executionenvironment where applications/modules can execute as if they wereexecuting on a hardware machine (such as the machine 1000 of FIG. 10,for example). The virtual machine 1348 may be hosted by a host OS (forexample, OS 1314) or hypervisor, and may have a virtual machine monitor1346 which manages operation of the virtual machine 1348 andinteroperation with the host operating system. A software architecture,which may be different from software architecture 1302 outside of thevirtual machine, executes within the virtual machine 1348 such as an OS1350, libraries 1352, frameworks 1354, applications 1356, and/or apresentation layer 1358.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating components of an example machine1400 configured to read instructions from a machine-readable medium (forexample, a machine-readable storage medium) and perform any of thefeatures described herein. The example machine 1400 is in a form of acomputer system, within which instructions 1416 (for example, in theform of software components) for causing the machine 1400 to perform anyof the features described herein may be executed. As such, theinstructions 1416 may be used to implement modules or componentsdescribed herein. The instructions 1416 cause unprogrammed and/orunconfigured machine 1400 to operate as a particular machine configuredto carry out the described features. The machine 1400 may be configuredto operate as a standalone device or may be coupled (for example,networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine1400 may operate in the capacity of a server machine or a client machinein a server-client network environment, or as a node in a peer-to-peeror distributed network environment. Machine 1400 may be embodied as, forexample, a server computer, a client computer, a personal computer (PC),a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a netbook, a set-top box (STB), agaming and/or entertainment system, a smart phone, a mobile device, awearable device (for example, a smart watch), and an Internet of Things(IoT) device. Further, although only a single machine 1400 isillustrated, the term “machine” includes a collection of machines thatindividually or jointly execute the instructions 1416.

The machine 1400 may include processors 1410, memory 1430, and I/Ocomponents 1450, which may be communicatively coupled via, for example,a bus 1402. The bus 1402 may include multiple buses coupling variouselements of machine 1400 via various bus technologies and protocols. Inan example, the processors 1410 (including, for example, a centralprocessing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digitalsignal processor (DSP), an ASIC, or a suitable combination thereof) mayinclude one or more processors 1412 a to 1412 n that may execute theinstructions 1416 and process data. In some examples, one or moreprocessors 1410 may execute instructions provided or identified by oneor more other processors 1410. The term “processor” includes amulti-core processor including cores that may execute instructionscontemporaneously. Although FIG. 14 shows multiple processors, themachine 1400 may include a single processor with a single core, a singleprocessor with multiple cores (for example, a multi-core processor),multiple processors each with a single core, multiple processors eachwith multiple cores, or any combination thereof. In some examples, themachine 1400 may include multiple processors distributed among multiplemachines.

The memory/storage 1430 may include a main memory 1432, a static memory1434, or other memory, and a storage unit 1436, both accessible to theprocessors 1410 such as via the bus 1402. The storage unit 1436 andmemory 1432, 1434 store instructions 1416 embodying any one or more ofthe functions described herein. The memory/storage 1430 may also storetemporary, intermediate, and/or long-term data for processors 1410. Theinstructions 1416 may also reside, completely or partially, within thememory 1432, 1434, within the storage unit 1436, within at least one ofthe processors 1410 (for example, within a command buffer or cachememory), within memory at least one of I/O components 1450, or anysuitable combination thereof, during execution thereof. Accordingly, thememory 1432, 1434, the storage unit 1436, memory in processors 1410, andmemory in I/O components 1450 are examples of machine-readable media.

As used herein, “machine-readable medium” refers to a device able totemporarily or permanently store instructions and data that causemachine 1400 to operate in a specific fashion. The term“machine-readable medium,” as used herein, does not encompass transitoryelectrical or electromagnetic signals per se (such as on a carrier wavepropagating through a medium); the term “machine-readable medium” maytherefore be considered tangible and non-transitory. Non-limitingexamples of a non-transitory, tangible machine-readable medium mayinclude, but are not limited to, nonvolatile memory (such as flashmemory or read-only memory (ROM)), volatile memory (such as a staticrandom-access memory (RAM) or a dynamic RAM), buffer memory, cachememory, optical storage media, magnetic storage media and devices,network-accessible or cloud storage, other types of storage, and/or anysuitable combination thereof. The term “machine-readable medium” appliesto a single medium, or combination of multiple media, used to storeinstructions (for example, instructions 1416) for execution by a machine1400 such that the instructions, when executed by one or more processors1410 of the machine 1400, cause the machine 1400 to perform and one ormore of the features described herein. Accordingly, a “machine-readablemedium” may refer to a single storage device, as well as “cloud-based”storage systems or storage networks that include multiple storageapparatus or devices.

The I/O components 1450 may include a wide variety of hardwarecomponents adapted to receive input, provide output, produce output,transmit information, exchange information, capture measurements, and soon. The specific I/O components 1450 included in a particular machinewill depend on the type and/or function of the machine. For example,mobile devices such as mobile phones may include a touch input device,whereas a headless server or IoT device may not include such a touchinput device. The particular examples of I/O components illustrated inFIG. 14 are in no way limiting, and other types of components may beincluded in machine 1400. The grouping of I/O components 1450 are merelyfor simplifying this discussion, and the grouping is in no way limiting.In various examples, the I/O components 1450 may include user outputcomponents 1452 and user input components 1454. User output components1452 may include, for example, display components for displayinginformation (for example, a liquid crystal display (LCD) or aprojector), acoustic components (for example, speakers), hapticcomponents (for example, a vibratory motor or force-feedback device),and/or other signal generators. User input components 1454 may include,for example, alphanumeric input components (for example, a keyboard or atouch screen), pointing components (for example, a mouse device, atouchpad, or another pointing instrument), and/or tactile inputcomponents (for example, a physical button or a touch screen thatprovides location and/or force of touches or touch gestures) configuredfor receiving various user inputs, such as user commands and/orselections.

In some examples, the I/O components 1450 may include biometriccomponents 1456 and/or position components 1462, among a wide array ofother environmental sensor components. The biometric components 1456 mayinclude, for example, components to detect body expressions (forexample, facial expressions, vocal expressions, hand or body gestures,or eye tracking), measure biosignals (for example, heart rate or brainwaves), and identify a person (for example, via voice-, retina-, and/orfacial-based identification). The position components 1462 may include,for example, location sensors (for example, a Global Position System(GPS) receiver), altitude sensors (for example, an air pressure sensorfrom which altitude may be derived), and/or orientation sensors (forexample, magnetometers).

The I/O components 1450 may include communication components 1464,implementing a wide variety of technologies operable to couple themachine 1400 to network(s) 1470 and/or device(s) 1480 via respectivecommunicative couplings 1472 and 1482. The communication components 1464may include one or more network interface components or other suitabledevices to interface with the network(s) 1470. The communicationcomponents 1464 may include, for example, components adapted to providewired communication, wireless communication, cellular communication,Near Field Communication (NFC), Bluetooth communication, Wi-Fi, and/orcommunication via other modalities. The device(s) 1480 may include othermachines or various peripheral devices (for example, coupled via USB).

In some examples, the communication components 1464 may detectidentifiers or include components adapted to detect identifiers. Forexample, the communication components 1464 may include Radio FrequencyIdentification (RFID) tag readers, NFC detectors, optical sensors (forexample, one- or multi-dimensional bar codes, or other optical codes),and/or acoustic detectors (for example, microphones to identify taggedaudio signals). In some examples, location information may be determinedbased on information from the communication components 1462, such as,but not limited to, geo-location via Internet Protocol (IP) address,location via Wi-Fi, cellular, NFC, Bluetooth, or other wireless stationidentification and/or signal triangulation.

Furthermore, implementations of the present disclosure can make use ofany of the features, systems, components, devices, and methods describedin U.S. Pat. No. 9,965,475 to Gan et al., issued May 8, 2018 and titled“User Interface For Navigating Comments Associated With CollaborativelyEdited Electronic Documents,” the disclosure of which is hereinincorporated by reference in its entirety.

While various implementations have been described, the description isintended to be exemplary, rather than limiting, and it is understoodthat many more implementations and implementations are possible that arewithin the scope of the implementations. Although many possiblecombinations of features are shown in the accompanying figures anddiscussed in this detailed description, many other combinations of thedisclosed features are possible. Any feature of any implementation maybe used in combination with or substituted for any other feature orelement in any other implementation unless specifically restricted.Therefore, it will be understood that any of the features shown and/ordiscussed in the present disclosure may be implemented together in anysuitable combination. Accordingly, the implementations are not to berestricted except in light of the attached claims and their equivalents.Also, various modifications and changes may be made within the scope ofthe attached claims.

While the foregoing has described what are considered to be the bestmode and/or other examples, it is understood that various modificationsmay be made therein and that the subject matter disclosed herein may beimplemented in various forms and examples, and that the teachings may beapplied in numerous applications, only some of which have been describedherein. It is intended by the following claims to claim any and allapplications, modifications and variations that fall within the truescope of the present teachings.

Unless otherwise stated, all measurements, values, ratings, positions,magnitudes, sizes, and other specifications that are set forth in thisspecification, including in the claims that follow, are approximate, notexact. They are intended to have a reasonable range that is consistentwith the functions to which they relate and with what is customary inthe art to which they pertain.

The scope of protection is limited solely by the claims that now follow.That scope is intended and should be interpreted to be as broad as isconsistent with the ordinary meaning of the language that is used in theclaims when interpreted in light of this specification and theprosecution history that follows and to encompass all structural andfunctional equivalents. Notwithstanding, none of the claims are intendedto embrace subject matter that fails to satisfy the requirement ofSections 101, 102, or 103 of the Patent Act, nor should they beinterpreted in such a way. Any unintended embracement of such subjectmatter is hereby disclaimed.

Except as stated immediately above, nothing that has been stated orillustrated is intended or should be interpreted to cause a dedicationof any component, step, feature, object, benefit, advantage, orequivalent to the public, regardless of whether it is or is not recitedin the claims.

It will be understood that the terms and expressions used herein havethe ordinary meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions withrespect to their corresponding respective areas of inquiry and studyexcept where specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.Relational terms such as first and second and the like may be usedsolely to distinguish one entity or action from another withoutnecessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or orderbetween such entities or actions. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,”or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusiveinclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus thatcomprises a list of elements does not include only those elements butmay include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to suchprocess, method, article, or apparatus. An element proceeded by “a” or“an” does not, without further constraints, preclude the existence ofadditional identical elements in the process, method, article, orapparatus that comprises the element.

The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to allow the reader toquickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It issubmitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpretor limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in theforegoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features aregrouped together in various examples for the purpose of streamlining thedisclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted asreflecting an intention that the claims require more features than areexpressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claimsreflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of asingle disclosed example. Thus the following claims are herebyincorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing onits own as a separately claimed subject matter.

1. A data processing device comprising: at least one processor; and oneor more computer readable media including instructions which, whenexecuted by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processorto: present, on a display, a graphical user interface including: a firstregion configured to display at least a first portion of a firstdiscrete segment of electronic content, and a second region configuredto display a list comprising of one or more comment items; identify anavailability of a first comment associated with a second portion of asecond discrete segment in the plurality of discrete segments, thesecond discrete segment being hidden from view while the first discretesegment is being displayed; add, in response to identifying theavailability of the first comment, a first actuatable comment indicatorto the list of comment items; display the first actuatable commentindicator in the second region, wherein the first actuatable commentindicator is initially in a low visibility mode; and transition, inresponse to a first user input event associated with the firstactuatable comment indicator, an appearance of the first actuatablecomment indicator from low visibility mode to a high visibility modeduring the first user input event.
 2. The device of claim 1, wherein theinstructions further cause the at least one processor to switch, inresponse to actuation of the first actuatable comment indicator, from adisplay of the first portion of the first discrete segment in the firstregion to a display of at least the second portion of the seconddiscrete segment in the first region.
 3. The device of claim 1, whereinthe instructions further cause the at least one processor to remove thefirst actuatable comment indicator from the second region display afteractuation of the first actuatable comment indicator.
 4. The device ofclaim 2, wherein the instructions further cause the at least oneprocessor to: identify an availability of a second comment associatedwith the first portion of the first discrete segment in the sequence ofelectronic content; add, in response to identifying the availability ofsecond comment, a second actuatable comment indicator to the list ofcomment items, the second actuatable comment indicator being configuredto enable a user to return to the first portion; display the secondactuatable comment indicator in the second region, wherein the secondactuatable comment indicator is initially in low visibility mode;transition, in response to a second user input event associated with thesecond actuatable comment indicator, an appearance of the secondactuatable comment indicator from low visibility mode to a highvisibility mode during the second user input event; and switch, inresponse to actuation of the second actuatable comment indicator, from adisplay of the second discrete segment in the first region to a displayof at least the first portion of the first discrete segment in the firstregion.
 5. A data processing device comprising: at least one processor;and one or more computer readable media including instructions which,when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least oneprocessor to: present, on a display, a graphical user interfaceincluding: a first region configured to display at least a first portionof a first discrete segment of electronic content, and a second regionconfigured to display a list comprising of one or more edit items;identify an availability of a first edit associated with a secondportion of a second discrete segment in the plurality of discretesegments, the second discrete segment being hidden from view while thefirst discrete segment is being displayed; add, in response toidentifying the availability of the first edit, a first edit indicatorto the list of edit items; and display the first edit indicator in thesecond region, wherein the first edit indicator is initially configuredto conceal any text from appearing in an interior region of the firstedit indicator.
 6. The device of claim 5, wherein the interior region ofthe first edit indicator includes at least one elongated stripsymbolizing placeholder text.
 7. The device of claim 5, wherein theelectronic content comprises a database and the first discrete segmentand the second discrete segment each correspond to an individualworksheet in the database.
 8. The device of claim 5, wherein theelectronic content comprises a slideshow and the first discrete segmentand the second discrete segment each correspond to an individual slidein the slideshow.
 9. A method comprising: presenting, on a display of auser device, a graphical user interface including: a first regionconfigured to display at least a first portion of a first discretesegment in a sequence of electronic content, the sequence of electroniccontent including a plurality of discrete segments, and a second regionconfigured to display a list comprising of one or more comment items;identifying an availability of a first comment associated with a secondportion of a second discrete segment in the sequence of electroniccontent, the second discrete segment being hidden from view while thefirst discrete segment is being displayed; adding, in response toidentifying the availability of the first comment, a first actuatablecomment indicator to the list of comment items, the first actuatablecomment indicator being configured to enable a user to navigate to thesecond portion; displaying the first actuatable comment indicator in thesecond region, wherein the first actuatable comment indicator isinitially in a low visibility mode; and transitioning, in response to afirst user input event associated with the first actuatable commentindicator, an appearance of the first actuatable comment indicator fromlow visibility mode to a high visibility mode during the first userinput event.
 10. The method of claim 9, further comprising switching, inresponse to actuation of the first actuatable comment indicator, from adisplay of the first portion of the first discrete segment in the firstregion to a display of at least the second portion of the seconddiscrete segment in the first region.
 11. The method of claim 10,further comprising displaying the first comment in the second region.12. The method of claim 9, wherein the second region includes a firstend and a second end, and the method further comprises: presenting thefirst actuatable comment indicator in the second region proximate to:the second end of the second region when the second discrete segment issubsequent to the first discrete segment in the sequence, and the firstend of the second region when the second discrete segment is prior tothe first discrete segment in the sequence.
 13. The method of claim 9,wherein the first actuatable comment indicator includes an outline thatis initially translucent while in low visibility mode, and the methodfurther comprises: solidifying, in response to the first user inputevent associated with the first actuatable comment indicator, theoutline of the first actuatable comment indicator when the firstactuatable comment indicator is in high visibility mode.
 14. The methodof claim 12, wherein the list of comment items includes a plurality ofcomments that are associated with the first discrete segment, and themethod further comprises: concealing the first actuatable commentindicator when the plurality of comments being displayed in the secondregion extends between the first end and the second end.
 15. The methodof claim 10, further comprising: identifying an availability of a secondcomment associated with a third portion of a third discrete segment inthe sequence of electronic content, the third discrete segment beinghidden from view while the second discrete segment is being displayed;adding, in response to identifying the availability of second comment, asecond actuatable comment indicator to the list of comment items, thesecond actuatable comment indicator being configured to enable a user tonavigate to the third portion; displaying the second actuatable commentindicator in the second region, wherein the second actuatable commentindicator is initially in low visibility mode; transitioning, inresponse to a second user input event associated with the secondactuatable comment indicator, an appearance of the second actuatablecomment indicator from low visibility mode to high visibility modeduring the second user input event; and switching, in response toactuation of the second actuatable comment indicator, from a display ofthe second discrete segment in the first region to a display of at leastthe third portion of the third discrete segment in the first region. 16.The method of claim 10, further comprising: identifying an availabilityof a second comment associated with the first portion of the firstdiscrete segment in the sequence of electronic content; adding, inresponse to identifying the availability of second comment, a secondactuatable comment indicator to the list of comment items, the secondactuatable comment indicator being configured to enable a user to returnto the first portion; displaying the second actuatable comment indicatorin the second region, wherein the second actuatable comment indicator isinitially in low visibility mode; transitioning, in response to seconduser input event associated with the second actuatable commentindicator, an appearance of the second actuatable comment indicator fromlow visibility mode to high visibility mode during the second user inputevent; and switching, in response to actuation of the second actuatablecomment indicator, from a display of the second discrete segment in thefirst region to a display of at least the first portion of the firstdiscrete segment in the first region.
 17. The method of claim 9, whereinan interior of the first actuatable comment indicator is blank.
 18. Themethod of claim 9, wherein an interior of the first actuatable commentindicator includes at least one elongated strip symbolizing placeholdertext.
 19. The method of claim 10, wherein the electronic contentcomprises a database and the first discrete segment and the seconddiscrete segment each correspond to an individual worksheet in thedatabase.
 20. The method of claim 10, wherein the electronic contentcomprises a slideshow and the first discrete segment and the seconddiscrete segment each correspond to an individual slide in theslideshow.